This afternoon finds me just outside of Houston, Texas. I hauled a very large generator down here from Wisconsin. The load is 10' 7" wide, 13' 11" tall, and has my rig weighing in at 90,000 lbs.
When I went to bed last night in Little Rock the temperature was pleasant so I didn't bother running my APU. I have caught a cold and wanted some nice, quiet sleep time between coughing and blowing my nose.
When I woke this morning and tossed back the blanket it was downright frigid. A quick check verified it was below freezing; 31 degrees F. Brrr. I quickly fired up the truck so it could start warming up and donned some thermal underwear before dressing.
I performed my morning ablutions, filled my coffee mug, and had my logbook filled out and ready to go so I could roll the second the clock reached the official sunrise time as I wanted to get my big load down here as quickly as possible.
Due to curfew restrictions on over-size loads I can't run at night nor can I move in the city of Houston between 6:00 am - 9:00 am or 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM. This presented me with a bit of a problem as my crane appointment was set up for 8:00 am tomorrow.
I had originally planned to get to the site before 4:00 PM today and just park there over night. A conversation with the customer killed that idea. The generator is going to a medical center. No room to park a truck over night.
Ok, plan B. I discussed the curfew issue with the customer and he agreed to move my appointment time out to 9:30 am. That would allow me enough time to leave the truck stop just outside of the city and get to the location without violating the curfew and risking a major fine. So that's the plan right now.
As I had been in a hurry to get down here I didn't stop for anything between Little Rock and here. I was starving and had a serious need to use the restroom.
After taking care of necessities, I had a big bowl of chicken soup for my cold, as well as a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. They didn't actually have a grilled ham and cheese on the menu but the waitress took care of me and saw to it I got one anyway. Nice gal.
On my way to the door I passed a display of "collector" tins of DVD movies and spotted this one:
I wasn't looking to buy any movies but just had to have this set. At least I'll have 18 hours of entertainment available to me. As I will be sitting here until tomorrow morning I am sure I'll watch some of the films yet today and/or this evening. There is absolutely NOTHING around this truckstop to do so watching movies is about it. I'll take a cold capsule and settle in for some movie watching and pipe smoking.